By Rabbi Dow Marmur
JERUSALEM– If before we came to Jerusalem last month I harboured notions about the possibility of a comprehensive and early peace between Israel and the Palestinians, I abandoned them once I tried to follow events here, this time not from afar but at least geographically closer to the action. All the official statements about the resumption of talks and the prospect of an Israeli settlement freeze in exchange for substantial Palestinian concessions seem to have little to do with what’s actually happening.
The usual spin is prompted by the need to make nice to the Americans who, as a result of their apparent failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, want to show positive results here. As hard as it is to admit it, aVIGDOR Lieberman’s refusal to be taken in by the handshakes and the photo ops may be honest, even if it’s totally inappropriate for a foreign minister.
If there’s going to be peace in this region, it’ll be a different kind of peace than what’s being promised: no formal treaties but unofficial arrangements, motivated not by a desire on the part of Arab states to be Israel’s good neighbours but by the threat of Shiite non-Arab Iran that Israel shares with the Sunni Arab states in the region. By all accounts, it’s not love and mutual understanding that will bring Arabs and Jews together, but the common threat of Iran. It’s a way of turning bad news into somewhat better news. Thus:
*Egypt’s less than friendly relations with the Iranian stooge Hamas, and perhaps a possible agreement with Syria as a way of stopping Iran’s other stooge Hezbollah in its tracks, are pointers to the kind of arrangements that are now on the agenda.
*Saudi Arabia, arguably still the most anti-Semitic country in the world, is probably now talking to Israel because of the common interest of the two countries to thwart Iranian ambitions. Another case of my enemy’s enemy is my friend.
*There’re also signs of informal and clandestine working arrangements with Gulf States that may be no less substantial than the official peace with Egypt and Jordan.
I learnt much about that listening this Saturday night to Dr Jonathan Spyer, a lucid and seemingly very well informed British-born Israeli analyst of the Middle East.
I’ve also been impressed by Arianna Huffington’s explanation why traditional diplomacy no longer works, which accounts for the obvious failure of the US administration to advance peace in the Middle East. What the politicians and diplomats say in public seems to be intended for internal consumption in the United States with little relation to facts on the ground. Saturday’s report from Washington how Defense Minister Ehud Barak has been misleading the US administration is a case in point.
Huffington places much hope on the social networks by which especially the young communicate. The internet knows no borders. People talk to each other across political and religious divides. She believes that it’s they who’ll find ways of making peace, not through official treaties but through working relationships and tangible cooperation based on mutual interests. It’s possible that the new reality is already being in formation. It cries out for new thinking, which humans always find so very hard.
America’s role in this is, of course, diminishing. It’s still sufficiently strong to continue for some time to mask the shift, but the writing is on the wall and some perceptive analysts know how to read it. It doesn’t mean that Israel’s troubles are over, but it does suggest that, with its dominant place in the cyber world, it’ll know how to face them without having to go to war. Too early to celebrate but a little less need to panic.
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Marmur is spiritual leader emeritus of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. He now divides his time between Canada and Israel